Wilkie Makes Comeback to Win Predator Finale
Predator 9-Ball Tour / West Hempstead, NY
by Jerry Tarantola, NYCGrind
The Predator 9-Ball Tour’s 2009 season came to a close the weekend of December 12-13, and their finale drew 92 of the Northeast’s strongest players. Danny Basavich, Marc Vidal, Jose Parica, George Sansouci, and Scott Tollefson came out to Raxx Pool Room in West Hempstead, NY, for the $3,000-added event, with Shaun “Get Some” Wilkie taking home first place.
Wilkie’s road to the finals started out with a hill-hill battle against longtime friend and road partner Matt Krah, resulting with Wilkie as the last man standing. He followed this up with consecutive wins over Bill Dang 8-3, trick shot champion Andy Segal 8-4, and Tollefson 8-6 before being sent west by Sansouci 9-4.
Bouncing back from the one loss-side, Wilkie topped Filipino grinder Al Lapena 9-6, repeated over Tollefson 9-4, and then avenged his earlier loss to “Ginky” with a strong 9-4 win.
This win matched up Wilkie against another legendary New York player, Frankie Hernandez, in the finals. Through a display of entertaining shot-making and smart moves, Wilkie was able to grab the lead to win 10-3.
In the Sunday B/C/D tournament, Turkish women’s professional Neslihan Gurel was impressive in earning three strong wins before running into a brick wall against Raj Vannala. Vannala came back from a 5-3 deficit to defeat Gurel 6-5 before following it up with another strong come-from-behind win over Naldo Troncoso 7-6 in the finals.
The Predator 9-Ball Tour’s 2009 season came to a close the weekend of December 12-13, and their finale drew 92 of the Northeast’s strongest players.
Results:
1st Shaun Wilkie $2,500
2nd Frankie Hernandez $1,500
3rd George Sansouci $1,000
4th Scott Tollefson $750
5th Mike Miller $550
Al Lapena
7th Manny Chau $400
Jose Parica
9th Mhet Vergara $250
Matt Krah
Joey Korsiak
Chris Orme
13th Kevin Guimond $150
Mike Wong
Mike Fingers
Oscar Bonilla
B/C/D Class Results:
1st Raj Vannala $160
2nd Naldo Troncoso $100
3rd Dave Ascolese
4th Neslihan Gurel